Made it for Free Monogrammed Picture

Monogrammed stuff is everywhere these days, so I decided to jump on the Monogramming band wagon and get branded! I am making a gallery wall for over the sofa and I wanted to add something different. I was thinking a Monogrammed letter would be cool. Ok, first I have a confession,  I originally had a cool letter N from Hobby Lobby that I was going to paint black and put on the wall but in a horrible moment of anger I threw it on the ground and it broke. Sigh. I know. Bad me. I'm working on that and also just trying to keep it real around here.  So after I broke the letter I figured I better find a cheap and easy way to make the N.   I opened up Google Docs because we don't have Microsoft word and Google Docs is free.  I did it as a drawing instead of a document and I found the font I wanted and made a big letter N to print out. It didn't print out all nice and colored in, darn.

In a light bulb moment, I grabbed a black Sharpie marker and colored in the N and then cut it out.  It actually doesn't look half bad.  

My husband is a big music kind of guy, he plays about 70 different instruments and also plays by ear.  You know the person that everyone is jealous of their musical ear?  That's my husband!  I love listening to him play and hope that some of our children inherit his musical talent!  I found a great printable at Graphics Fairy Queen . 

So here's my monogrammed picture for the gallery wall, one 8x10 frame that I already had at home, a printed off sheet of music and a sharpie colored black N.  Can't wait to get the wall done!  Not bad, huh?

I'm linking up here:




http://frugalfabulousdesign.com/fab-friday-38/

Living Room Then & Now

Back when we first moved into this house my main focus was redoing a horrible no good very bad kitchen, you can check out photos of the kitchen remodel here.  Back when we first moved in we didn't have a rug for the living room, we had dark curtains and ugly flesh colored walls.  They don't look to bad in these photos but I promise you, it was like Silence of the Lambs on the walls.

I finally painted the brown brick on the fireplace. I am also hoping to paint over the sassy brassy parts soon with high heat paint in black.

The back wall is not my least favorite part of this living room. It looks like someone forgot to finish the bookshelves. For now the TV is there but I am hoping to convince Mr.A to build some built-ins and move the TV over the fireplace to make one focal wall instead of two. Then we can tear down the half finished bookshelves and do something else, like board and batten so we don't have to drywall.  Good thing we have Ms. A in the picture, otherwise there wouldn't be anything cute about that picture above!

If I could paint my living room again I wouldn't choose such a bright color,  I'd go for something softer but still an aqua/turquoise type color.  I think if I told my husband I wanted to paint the living room he would cry.  He read this last sentence and said it would be more like weeping. Good thing he thinks I'm so cute!
I am hoping to get our gallery wall over the couch done this week but with the kids on Spring Break it might just be too much for this week, seeing as I'm already redoing the dining room chairs and table.  have I ever mentioned that I think I have project ADD? Does anyone else do that?

I'm linking up at:

What I"m working on right now

I have 2 coats of primer on the chairs, sanded in between the coats, two coats of paint on and also put the fabric on the seat cushions! Just waiting to see if they need yet another coat and also trying to decide if I'm going to distress the chairs or not. Here is one chair, she's sitting pretty now:

Remember the before, well technically this isn't her before picture but it's a picture of her and her friends gathered around the table:

While I was busy with painting the chairs, my children were busy doing this:

and this:

They actually built a fort under the table yesterday and two of the three girls slept under it last night. We are on Spring Break and so they've been playing together all day really well which is awesome! The side effect of that is a tornado like aftermath in the playroom. Which isn't that what a playroom is for? But when you can't play in the playroom because there is no space, it then spills out into other rooms. They have a lot of cleaning to do today!
We are surprising our children tomorrow with a waterpark getaway, I can't wait! They have no idea so this will be so fun! Hopefully the dining room will be finished soon! What are you working on this week?

Chair Fabric and Inspiration

I went to the fabric store today and tried to pick out some fabric for my chairs in the dining room. This is a bad idea for someone who has decorating ADD. I love so many different styles of decorating that it's tricky not to get caught up in changing out the whole house after picking something that doesn't jive with the what I already have. Does that happen to you?
Anyways, here are the two I picked out today, I was feeling geometric patters today. I am not sure I'll go with either but I'd love to hear your thoughts on them! And what the stink do you do for curtains with the black and white fabric?

Here is one lovely dining room with black and white chairs and botanical/fruit pictures which I love and was thinking I would like in my dining room too. Or I would love an old map framed in a few different frames.  Here are a few pictures I love from Houzz.  If you haven't check out Houzz  yet, go now!  It's great, you sign up for free and get to store all the photos of rooms you love on their in your ideabook.  There are a gazillion and one photos in so many different styles.

eclectic dining room design by media and blogs Dreamy Whites

eclectic home office design by media and blogs French Larkspur

eclectic dining room design by los angeles interior designer megan arquette c/o beachbungalow8

eclectic dining room design by media and blogs French Larkspur

So what's your vote?  Black, Blue or back to the drawing board?

This is what I"m working on

I decided to paint the dining room chairs and table legs/apron heirloom white. I didn't want to sand them because well I don't want to do anymore work than I need to. So I purchased some oil based primer and I've primed all 6 chairs, the table and unfortunately, my fingers, arms and hair as well. I will be scheduling my hair color appointment ASAP! I think I could qualify for world's messiest painter. And it looks much worse in person, the camera didn't quite capture the total effect.

Moving on. Here's a chair in all it's primed glory!! I already love it and they aren't even close to being done yet! I'm still on the lookout for fabric for the seat covers, so hopefully I find something soon!

Anyone else painting anything right now?